Organizing Strategy and Practice

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RFP: Build the Block Party Curriculum Production Manager

Alabama Forward

Request for Proposal

Posted: 03/14/2023

Location:

Remote,

Alabama Forward is developing a popular education style public policy and civic engagement curriculum series called Build the Block Party. This curriculum series will be distributed through Alabama Forward’s Shake the Field branded platforms and initiatives. To produce the first iteration of this series, we seek to work with an experienced writer, editor, and project manager to lead a collaborative production process involving Alabama Forward members, staff, and Liberation Lab participants.

 

Purpose

This curriculum is designed to explain connections between lived experiences and community level institutions that our audience members are likely to value, public finance, and the relevant public policies that shape those experiences and institutions. Ultimately, this Build the Block Party content will be engaged by members of our target audiences interested in high quality content that is both well researched, entertaining, educational, and easily shareable.

 

Target Audiences

The target audiences for this curriculum and its associated multimedia content are:

  1. 18-49 year old Alabamians who are nonwhite, LGBTQ+, immigrants, students, and/or emerging from financial struggle and
  2. The field workers, organizers, and volunteers within the Alabama Forward network seeking to directly engage these 18-49 year old community members.

 

Production Process

The Build the Block Party production process will reflect the principles of popular education and participatory democracy. We will collaborate with our target audiences and Alabama Forward member groups throughout the production as co-creators, focus group members, and advisors. While we could pay some sort of public relations consultant firm to produce all of the content, that process would not build leadership or capacity within our member group networks and the communities we serve. We need the people we are hoping to communicate with deeply involved in building the blocks of content. Ideally, those same people will be involved in the organizing, education, training, community service, and activism needed to actually build the fabric of their communities, block by block. We certainly hope the content inspires our learning communities and target audience members to do the same.

Current Status of our Curriculum Production Process

 

Current Task Objectives

Our task now is to further translate our current cache of written content and additional research into a format that features idioms, dialects, metaphors, images, and examples most relevant to our target audiences. Ideally, each policy area will feature a summary primer translated into a style most accessible to Alabama’s public high school juniors, i.e. written at an 11th grade reading level. We will then further develop that foundational document into a variety of media content including:

  • Social media posts
  • Short talking head videos
  • Extended interviews
  • Photography posts
  • Short scripted videos using humor or drama
  • Original music and poetry

Project Manager Responsibilities 

  • Editing, Research, and Writing 
    • Edit current content and produce original research and written content. 
    • Work with Alabama Forward’s Creative and Communications Director to source multimedia content ideas from learning.
    • Further refine the Build the Block Party content production process.
  • Niche Community Engagement 
    • Build a robust network of K-12 and post-secondary staff willing to collaborate as advisors and volunteers in development and distribution of curriculum.
    • Build, manage, and document collaboration with a network of 16-49 year old Build the Block Party content co-creators identified by Alabama Forward member groups.
    • Facilitate meetings with learning communities and focus groups to review content and incorporate feedback.
  • Administrate Formal Structuring of Content
    • ​Work with legal services to monitor application for related trade marks, common copyrights, and other legal protections.
  • Internal Communications with Alabama Forward Staff
    • ​Provide status reports directly to Alabama Forward’s Deputy Director at least once a week. 
    • Participate in team meetings with Alabama Forward staff related to Shake the Field content and activities.
    • Work closely with Creative and Communications Director to ensure consistency of formatting and visual design across Alabama Forward/Shake the Field platforms.

Timeline 

  • Month 1 - Begin familiarization with content. Conduct initial outreach with Alabama Forward member groups and Liberation Lab participants (i.e. learning community members). Build list of contacts and present finalized Phase 1 production plan. Begin editing content and producing original research/writing as needed.
  • Month 2-3 - Deepen engagement of learning communities via focus group meetings and 1:1 interactions. Incorporate feedback into documents. Work with Creative and Communications Director to publish initial cache of BTBP resources in private Alabama Forward member spaces. Begin building list of K-12 and post-secondary contacts. Begin fielding ideas for multimedia production from learning community members. Continue editing content and producing original research/writing as needed. Initiate exploratory investigation regarding licensing, legal protections, bundling of content for use by educational institutions.
  • Month 4-5 - In collaboration with our learning community members, further refine written materials. Begin managing the process of producing multimedia content ideas with full involvement of learning community members. Provide updates on progress to Alabama Forward members and education community members more broadly. Begin publishing BTBP content online via Shake the Field Instagram, Facebook, and website platforms. Evaluate and incorporate feedback. Continue editing content and producing original research/writing as needed. Manage printing and distribution of content for unveiling during Now or Never Democracy event.
  • Month 6-7 - Continue building list of K-12 and post secondary contacts. Complete remaining multimedia production. Expand distribution of BTBP content onto YouTube, TikTok. Continue to engage with learning community members and incorporate feedback. Continue editing content and producing original research/writing as needed. Develop printed and bound versions of content.
  • Month 8-9 - Reach out to K-12 and post-secondary contacts during summer and fall season to pitch licensing of content. Continue to engage with learning community members and incorporate feedback. Continue editing content and producing original research/writing as needed. Observe analytics and refine promotional strategy.

Submitting a Proposal

Please prepare a proposal that includes the following information and requested materials:

  • Summary of motivation for taking interest in the project (200-250 words)
  • Assessment of the written materials we have produced to date and our intended content production process ( 300-350 words)
    • What is required to take what we have and create what we want?
    • How have you worked collaboratively in the past to translate content to wider audiences?
    • How do the goals of our content production process intersect with your own goals?
    • How can the policy materials we currently have in our Build the Block outline be translated for a wider audience?
  • Narrative description of how you would approach moving from the written content we have to the first iteration of the content we want to create (750-1000 words)
    • Timeline ■ How much time would you allocate for their various phases?
      • How would you lay out the proposed timeline over the months remaining in this calendar year?
      • Would you deviate or tim from the general timeline outlined in the RFP? If so, how?
  • Milestones for each phase of project and deliverable related to that milestone
    • ​Once this phase of the project has been completed, what deliverable item would have been produced?
    • How do we evaluate that item?
    • How do we develop that phase of the production process?
  • Proposed budget that features estimations of costs associated with the project including (as many words as needed)
    • ​hourly rate or total salary for the Project Manager 
    • fees for tools
    • fees for relevant subcontractors

***If you can conceive of more than one budget/timeline option, feel free to present more than one option (this is what 20 vs. 40 hours per month looks like vs. 160 hours per month).***

  • Resume + two references who can speak to candidates professional services
  • Feel free to include appendix containing no more than 3 examples of prior work products that would be relevant to our consideration.

Proposals should be submitted via email to info@alforward.org by EOD Friday, April 14th. Please include “Build the Block Party Curriculum Production Manager” in the subject line of your email.

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